Briefing: May 1
Lottery Watch Party. New news is good news.
Good afternoon,
We are hosting a Lottery Watch Party!
When: May 14 at 7:30 PM EST
Where: Slattery’s Midtown Pub in Manhattan.
10% of drink sales will be donated to charity.
We will raffle off Knicks merchandise for charity.
Stay tuned for more details…
Who will the Knicks take in the second round? All of the talk on the lottery, it’s easy to forget the Knicks have a second round pick from Houston (55th overall). It’s tough to predict who will go where that late in the draft, but Sam Vecenie highlights Darius Bazley for the Knicks in his recent mock:
Bazley accepted an internship with New Balance this year instead of playing at Syracuse. Evaluators wanted to get their eyes on him, as he’s an intriguing athlete with size and legit ball skills. Still, Bazley is certainly a lottery ticket, and he’ll need to prove himself in workouts. He wasn’t a surefire one-and-done prospect before making this decision. Now, teams will want to see if the year was put to good use while training and working on his skills.
Sam Perkins is excited about the possibility of Durant and Kyrie playing together in New York. "[KD and Kyrie] have been talking a lot lately. If they were to link up, that would be dangerous. ... It could be special. I could only imagine KD and Kyrie in New York. I might move to New York. I'd have to buy me some tickets." [Watch]
No news is good news
by Jonathan Macri
Yesterday was a pretty slow news day in what's been a pretty slow news month for the Knicks since the season ended...which is kind of news in and of itself.
Think about it: last April, we were focused on who would be the next head coach of the team after Jeff Hornacek was mercifully relieved of his duties. The previous spring, KP had skipped his exit meeting and trade rumors were swirling. The year before that, another head coaching search, with the very real, very frightening possibility of Kurt Rambis taking over hovering above all of our heads. In '15, the team had just won 17 games without a single identifiable building block on the roster and little hope on the horizon. In '14, it was Melo's free agency and a new coach. Always something.
Now, it's just a matter of waiting. Yes, this is the most important summer in Knicks history, both because of what can happen if they get it right and how deep a hole they can dig themselves in if they (hopefully don't) get it wrong. But for the first time in a long time, fans seem to have trust in the people running the show. Regardless of what happens, the sky may not be falling when all is said and done.
On that note, Ric Bucher went on Howard Beck's pod this week and defended the team against some of the barbs that have become a common refrain for Howard, who is fond of pointing out that the Knicks haven't shown much, if any, evidence of competence for nearly two decades. Up until recently, he was positively correct.
What Bucher pointed out though, and what I, despite always looking for positives, hadn't really thought about until hearing Bucher, is that in addition to competence, this regime brings a championship pedigree with them as well.
It hasn't been a huge talking point because Perry wasn't in charge in Detroit when they won and Fiz wasn't running the show in Miami during their run, but the fact remains: the Knicks do have a couple of key guys in place who have served important roles on teams that have won it all. That matters, maybe a lot.
Will their championship pedigree - whatever the hell that is - be a selling point in July, as Bucher implies it might? Who knows. But as I sit here today and reflect on the fact that there's been a whole lot of nothing going on since the season ended, it's fair to point out that Perry and Fiz have brought one thing with them that this organization needed perhaps more than anything else:
Stability.
Can a franchise that just won 17 games be considered stable? You can't build a house without a foundation, and you can't build a foundation in quicksand. Yet that's exactly what the leadership structure of the Knicks has often resembled - the more they try to get it right, the further down they sink.
Now, at the very least, there's a nice big patch of stable dirt to start working from. It might not seem like much to some, but around here, it might as well be Shangri-F'ing-La. And on a boring Wednesday in a boring month of April, that much I can definitely appreciate.
Remember when…
May 1, 1996: Knicks complete a three-game series sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs with an 81-76 win at MSG. John Starks leads the way with 22 points and Patrick Ewing adds 16 points and 10 rebounds. (Vivek Dadhania with more)
May 1, 1970: Knicks lose in Los Angeles 121-115 in overtime, tying the NBA Finals at 2-2.
May 1, 1973: Knicks open NBA Finals with a 115-112 loss in Los Angeles.
May 1, 1994: Knicks overcome Patrick Ewing’s ejection to defeat the Nets 90-81 at MSG in Game Two of the Eastern Conference First Round. Charles Oakley scores 25 points and grabs 24 rebounds.
May 1, 1995: Knicks hold the Cavaliers to 32.8% shooting from the floor but have to withstand a potential game winning three from Danny Ferry at the buzzer to defeat the Cavs 83-81 and take a 2-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference opening round.
NBA Buzz
Harden ‘can barely see’ after injuring eyes in loss to Warriors. [Read more]
Bucks even series with Celtics. [Read more]
Vince Carter will return for 22nd season. [Read more]
Thanks for reading, talk to you tomorrow!